The NASA InSight spacecraft launches onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas-V rocket, Saturday, May 5, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to study the “inner space” of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core.

The lone active region visible on our Sun put on a fine display with its tangled magnetic field lines swaying and twisting above it (Apr. 24-26, 2018) when viewed in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.

“Guardian Angel” Pararescue specialists secure a covered life raft during an astronaut rescue training exercise. This exercise is part of preparation, with NASA’s commercial partners Boeing and SpaceX, to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station aboard the Starliner and Crew Dragon spacecraft.

NASA’s InSight Mars mission will help scientists understand the processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system (including Earth) more than four billion years ago. InSight, the first planetary mission to take off from the West Coast, is targeted to launch Saturday, May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

This view from above the nation of Turkey looks out across the Aegean Sea, over Greece and onto the Ionian Sea where Sicily and the boot of Italy are barely visible. The sun’s glint on the Mediterranean waters highlight the Greek islands while clouds cloak the island of Crete.